


We Take Care of the Things You've Forgotten

by minishadowsoul



Series: Family Means Your Problems Are Our Problems [3]
Category: Descendants (2015), The Isle of the Lost - Melissa de la Cruz
Genre: Everyone is adorable, F/M, Gen, Life on the Isle made everyone touch starved and they refuse to be ashamed about it, The Isle Four treat each other like the family they wanted, ben is confused but is getting used to it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-18
Updated: 2015-08-18
Packaged: 2018-04-15 08:10:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4599303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/minishadowsoul/pseuds/minishadowsoul
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Evie is very good at taking care of everyone else. She likes to stay busy but often forgets she needs to do things like eat and take naps and maybe take a break before she throws her textbook out the window. </p>
<p>Or the one where everyone reminds Evie that food and sleep are things people need to live and Ben is officially declared Family</p>
            </blockquote>





	We Take Care of the Things You've Forgotten

**Author's Note:**

> Still no beta. 
> 
> Evie does not have an eating disorder, but life with her mother taught her to eat only when someone reminded her.

The Isle Four had a thing about food. Ben knew he probably wasn’t the only one who noticed, but it was still something no one talked about. It was extremely probable that no one would ever talk about it unless one of the Four brought it up, and that was as likely to happen as the Fairy Godmother suddenly deciding to use magic all the time, like in the old days. Sure it _could_ happen, but it was highly improbable.

The four teens would eat anything placed in front of them, and if they didn’t finish whatever it was, they would take it with them. Sure they preferred to eat certain things – Jay and Carlos’ obsession with chocolate was practically legendary, Evie had a fondness for apples that still made some students wary, and Mal had actually growled at Ben once when he’d gotten between her and her strawberries – but they never turned down free food. Not even Evie who, out of all of them, was the pickiest eater.

If Evie didn’t like what she was eating, it could take her hours to finish it. Ben had seen her carry a bottle of cranapple juice all day, making faces every time she took a sip. Ben would have just thrown or given it away, but Evie kept the bottle until Carlos swapped it with a box of apple juice. Neither of them had said a word about it, but Evie had reached up to ruffle Carlos’ hair (and if Carlos actually bent down so Evie could do just that, well, that was pretty standard behaviour too). 

Through careful observation, Ben had learned that Evie disliked pretty much everything except finger foods and sometimes salads. Jay would frequently swap out whatever was on Evie’s plate with a pile of carrots and celery or apple slices. Carlos seemed to perpetually carry a bag of mixed nuts in his pockets that he shared with her whenever they saw one another. Mal would carry around smoothies and shakes, take a few sips, then leave the cup near Evie’s elbow while she studied or chatted with someone and then walk away without a word. 

Ben never asked, but one afternoon he found out why everyone kept feeding Evie. He and Mal were curled up on her bed. Ben read through a mixture of homework assignments and kingdom reports while Mal had pulled up his shirt so she could draw something on his back. He hoped she wasn’t using permanent markers. Again. 

Evie had several textbooks spread out on her bed and hadn’t said a word in two hours. She didn’t even look up at the quiet knock on the mostly open bedroom door. Jay, Carlos, and Dude greeted Ben and Mal then sat down on the edge of Evie’s bed. Carlos pulled out a small container filled with tiny sandwiches, and Jay glanced at Evie’s textbooks before he fished around in his bag for a packet of dried apples.

Evie didn’t seem to notice them and kept working on her homework until one of them gently prodded her arm and would tell her what they had in their hands. Then she would open her mouth, one of them would pop in something to eat, and she would chew and study while Carlos and Jay discussed a new video game that was coming out in a few months.

Ben wasn’t certain how long he stared at the three of them, but he jerked and looked away when Mal snorted a laugh. He felt vaguely guilty for staring. This wasn’t even the weirdest food related thing he’d seen the four of them do, but the staring was pretty rude, no matter how amusing Mal seemed to find it.

“V is worse than Carlos at remembering to eat,” Mal admitted. “She gets absorbed in some task then it’s suddenly hours later and she’s wondering why she’s hungry. I’m pretty sure Carlos only remembers to eat because of Dude.”

“And the sharing is because she’s always worried about you guys getting food, too?” Ben asked. He had a feeling there was more to it than that, but it was safer not to ask. 

“Let me guess, she’s started giving you snacks at least once a day, too,” Mal said and gave Evie a fond grin. It was actually something all of them did, but Evie was the best at remembering who had eaten what that day, how much they needed to eat based on their activity levels, and what they actually liked to eat. She was just really bad at remembering if _she_ had eaten. 

“Yeah,” Ben admitted. “How did she even find out I like pears?”

Mal shrugged a shoulder and went back to her drawing. “We notice things. You leave stuff on your plate sometimes, but never anything with pears in it. And you pick them out of that fruit salad stuff and leave most of the other fruit in it alone, sometimes. You’ve been forgetting to eat all of your meals, lately. Too busy, I guess.” She stopped drawing again, and when Ben glanced back at her he noticed she was frowning. “Should we…not add you to the snack rotation? Because we can stop, if….”

“No, no! I mean, yeah, sure. Add me to the…snack rotation,” Ben said hurriedly when Mal trailed off. “Just give me a list of stuff to give you guys, too. Making sure everyone gets enough to eat is very important, and as your boyfriend and friend I should be doing my part, too.”

Mal grinned at him and pulled out a notebook from underneath her pillow so she could write down suggestions. “Okay so try not to give anyone chocolate more than once a day. Jay really likes celery for some reason, and Carlos loves blueberries……”

~*~

It was rare to see Jay in the library. He always claimed it was far too quiet for his liking, and if anyone actually saw him studying it would ruin his bad boy reputation. So when Ben saw him curled up in a window seat he was curious enough to find out what was going on.

Jay wasn’t alone. Evie was slumped against him, head resting on his shoulder. She seemed more asleep than not, and at some point Jay had covered her with his jacket and placed his hat underneath her cheek in an effort to make his shoulder more comfortable. He had pulled Evie’s history book from her lap to his and was reading it despite the bored look on his face. Every time he turned the page, he did so as slowly and quietly as possible and only used his free arm. It appeared he was making every effort to move as little as possible.

Ben thought Jay hadn’t noticed him, but when he opened his mouth to say something, Jay put a finger to his lips and glanced up at him. 

“Don’t you dare wake her up,” Jay said so softly Ben could hardly hear him. “She wants to ‘completely blow the grading curve out of the water,’” he explained and added air quotes with his free hand. “So she stayed up all night because Mal forgot to set an alarm to remind her to go to sleep.”

“Does she do that often?” Ben asked and tried to be just as quiet as Jay was. Jay’s only response was to tilt his head a bit in a way remniscent of a shrug. Ben figured Jay was afraid shrugging would wake Evie up. He wondered how long Jay had sat there but decided it was better not to ask. Instead he asked, “Want me to get you something else to read?”

Jay gave Ben a grateful grin and nodded. “Curses, yes, this thing is beyond boring. I don’t even care what you grab. Anything is better than this.” He very carefully closed the history book and set it to the side.

“I’ll bring a couple of choices,” Ben told him. He’d bring Jay some of his old favorites and things he thought he might like. Then he’d text Carlos and Mal so they knew they’d need to collect Evie and Jay from the library around dinner time. Maybe he’d even have one of them help him make those celery, peanut butter, and chocolate snacks for Jay and apple slices cut into bunny shapes for Evie. The two of them would probably get a kick out of them.

~*~

“I need your help,” Carlos said so quickly his words sort of blurred together. His eyes were wide, he was very obviously out of breath, and though he’d reached for Ben’s shirt sleeve, his fingers stopped just short of touching the fabric. He stayed completely still for a second, waiting for Ben’s reaction, before he shifted from one foot to the other, too nervous to stay still.

“Okay. What, specifically, do you need help with?” Ben asked and barely resisted the urge to grab Carlos’ shoulders so the shorter teen would stay still.

“Okay so we found a blue curling iron that’s better than the one Evie has now, but it was broken so I figured I could just use parts from her older one to fix it and then she’d have an even better one and it would match her straightener except I sneezed while I was working on it and it shorted out and there’s this little piece missing and I don’t have the parts to fix it so now they’re both broken and I have to fix it before she comes back from her study session with Doug and gives me that ‘I love you but I am disappointed in you’ look. And then she’ll be mad at me and she’s never been mad at me before and I don’t know what to do!” Carlos told him, and it was all Ben could do to understand him.

“Carlos….Carlos, calm down. Deep breaths,” Ben ordered and was grateful when Carlos immediately nodded and did as instructed. He was still breathing too heavily for Ben’s liking and kept hopping from one foot to the other, but he looked slightly less like he was going to have a panic attack. “I have no idea where to get the parts to fix a curling iron, but-wait, calm down!” This time he did place his hands on Carlos’ shoulders.

“So we can’t fix it?” Carlos asked. He sounded hopeful, but his shoulders still slumped in defeat.

“Well…probably not? But we can buy her a new one,” Ben suggested.

“But that- won’t that cost a lot of money? I don’t think I can pay for that,” Carlos admitted. The expression on his face made Ben feel like he’d just kicked a puppy.

“You guys keep feeding me, and you helped with my science homework the other day. Plus you convinced Mal not to draw on my face when I fell asleep during that movie last week. I think getting Evie a new curling iron is the least I can do to repay you,” Ben told him. Giving gifts for no reason still made all of the Isle teens twitchy so Ben had learned to give excuses with the gifts. Usually, they silently judged him for his pitiful attempts, but they rarely called him on it. Of course, they usually found some way to pay him back. Jay would find something he’d thought he’d lost, Carlos had once repaired his phone, Evie somehow managed to get a hold of his clothes and embroidered little dragons on them, and Mal would hug him more often in public so she could slip extra money into his pockets. 

He was mostly certain Carlos wasn’t going to bolt or fidget more than usual so he finally let go of his shoulders. Two seconds later, Carlos was giving him a hug.

“That is brilliant, man. Thanks. Evie keeps complaining that doing her hair takes up too much of her time but refuses to let Mal use magic on it. This curling iron had great reviews so when Jay found one I figured I could fix it, and then she could use that time for other stuff. She’s going to be so surprised.” Carlos let go so he could bounce excitedly from one foot to the other for a moment before he followed after Ben.

“It’s not a big deal. You know there’s probably an electronics store in town you could get the parts from. I don’t know if they deliver so you’ll probably need the Headmistress’ permission to go off campus, but…..” Ben trailed off when he realized he’d have to explain this to all four of them and at least one of them would want documented proof that they wouldn’t get in trouble for even trying. “You know what, how about we go buy the curling iron, and we can all discuss it over dinner.”

“You just realized you’re going to have to write, like, at least three proposals to the council, the Headmistress, and the town represenative to get us permission to leave campus without inciting a panic, didn’t you?” Carlos asked with a smirk. “You really need to hire an assistant, dude. The kingdom stuff and the school stuff is wearing you out. Mal’s this close to staging an intervention.”

“I haven’t been that bad….have I?”

Carlos stared at him for a moment before he shrugged. “We like taking care of Family. It’s…nice.”

Ben had no idea how to reply to that without sounding too sappy so he just grinned.


End file.
